Hey, these are ACTUALLY good!

"Hey these are ACTUALLY good" Cookies

I love baking.  The only thing is, once something has been baked it inevitably gets eaten.  When I'm making pretzels, cookies and buns this can be a bad thing.  I want to be healthy and more importantly I want my kids to be healthy.  We limit our treats to Fridays, but throughout the rest of the week I get the urge to get creative in the kitchen and turn the oven on.  

You'll need a food processor or amazing blender to whip these up.

Preheat oven to 350.

3-4 ripe bananas

1 small can black beans

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch cocoa

Add first three ingredients to food processor, and blend thoroughly.  It will be quite runny, goopy looking.  

If you want to add a bit of sweetness, this is the time to do it.  If I have unsweetened applesauce I add about 1cup at this time (I didn't have any this batch and they were fine).  You could also add 1/4 cup of Agave nectar or even maple syrup if you need to slowly adjust your tastebuds (or your kids tastebuds) to a different kind of sweet cookie.

1-2 cups of uncooked quick oats

Starting with 1/2 cup at a time, add oats to mixture and pulse.  You will decide when there are enough oats to hold a "cookie" shape on your baking sheet.  I used 2 cups for a thick dense cookie.  

Optional: 

1 cup chocolate chips, carob chips or raisins.

When I first started making these I always had to add a few chocolate chips to entice the kids to eat it.  Last night when I made them, my 5 year old came running in to the kitchen to remind me NOT to put chocolate chips in half the batch!  

Scoop out 2inch balls of dough with a large spoon and just plop (ewww, better word anyone?) them onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes and enjoy at room temperature.

*If I have leftovers (I almost never do) I store them in the fridge.  If you choose to store them otherwise, simply place a clean dishtowel over them instead of plastic wrap as they are quite moist and you do not want them to mold* 

Enjoy!